The children of the wealthy and well-to-do dress and look very much like the children in our Southern States; though the babies and very young children sometimes wear no clothes.
These children are sent to school, or are taught by a governess or tutor at home, until they are old enough to be sent away to school.
Then they are sent to Spain, France, or the United States, to complete their education.
The girls study and read very little. It is not considered necessary for them to be well educated. They are not allowed to walk about the streets alone, but must have a servant, nurse, or attendant from the time they leave their cradles until they are married.
EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO.
Not more than one seventh of the 850,000 people in Puerto Rico can read or write. Only one child in twelve, between the ages of six and sixteen, attends school. (In 1897, of 125,000 children of school age, only about 28,000 attended school—about 19,000 boys and 9,000 girls.)
The buildings used for school purposes are seldom anything more than thatched huts. Sometimes two or three rooms are given to the school in the house where the teacher lives.
Many of the country districts are without schools, and no school privileges are provided for three fourths of the people.
The schools are of the old-fashioned, ungraded, district-school type, and are for pupils from seven to thirteen years of age.
Pupils are supposed to study arithmetic, geography, grammar, the history of Spain, and religion. There are few schoolbooks used. The pupils write down what the teacher dictates, or copy what the teacher has written. The one book they use is the one from which they learn to read.